Why I love Harris Teeter...

Harris Teeter doesn't get much love on certain coupon shoppers' message boards as their everyday prices tend to exceed that of other grocers' everyday prices...but I still shop there frequently. Why? Because it's generally much cleaner than other stores, the staff is typically friendlier (they even know my baby girl's name!), they're definitely more coupon friendly than other stores and I really love their triples and super doubles promotions. Rumor had it that there would be a super doubles this week but alas, no. And I still went there today because even though their everyday prices tend to be higher, their specials ROCK and even more so with coupons.

Even without super doubles, I did very well. I picked up 6 boxes of Orville Redenbacher microwave popcorn (my .40/1 q's expire today), 2 NY Strip Streaks, some Angus Sirloin tips, 6 cans of Campbell's Chunky Soup (these are free with .75/1 peelies!) and a Palermo's Thin Crust frozen pizza for $6.05. Yes, that's right- $6.05! I had two $1/1 beef winetags that expire today and $5 worth of Walgreen's Register Rewards and a $1/1 Palermos coupon too. Coupons and VIC savings totaled $39.41. That's over 85% savings.

Lessons learned- you don't need super doubles or triples to save big at HT and you need to keep tabs of your coupon expiration dates. If I hadn't made a quick run-through of my coupons this past weekend, I wouldn't have remembered that the Orvilles would expire and I would have lost out on super cheap popcorn (67 cents a box after B1G1 sale and coupon). Jon and I love our popcorn! I think it even tastes better when I pay less money for it. 8-)

Sharing the Wealth

Today I made my first official charitable donation of food and household items! After you've been couponing awhile, you find yourself with quite a stockpile of stuff. And yes, with a family of 6 we probably could actually use all I've been able to find for free or on the cheap...but it would take awhile- and as I've learned during a year of hardcore couponing, there are always more freebies & cheapies on the way. So, I took a big empty box from our garage and stuffed it with over 50 pounds of food (including pasta, rices, peanut butter and lots of Warm Delights), deodorants, toothpaste, unopened cans of infant formula and bottles of Lysol Toilet Bowl cleaner and brought it with a happy heart to Western Wake Ministries in downtown Apex.

If you have an envy-worthy stockpile or even if you're just beginning, I urge you to gather up some of your couponing goodies and donate them to a nearby shelter or charity. There are so many folks in need right now. Normally, when coupon shopping I try to stick with only items I know our family will need or want. After speaking with the Ministries' volunteer, I plan on also picking up other kinds of items for the specific purpose of donating when I can find them for free.

As always, happy shoping all...and happy giving too.

Drugstore Deals - week of 9/26

Some good deals at the drugstore this weekend! Rite Aid is a little slow but will have lots of freebies coming up over the next 2 weeks. Walgreens has lots of freebies after Register Rewards but as previously indicated, the rules of coupon redemption are usually more hassle than these are worth. But I likely will stop by for a few of their deals and earn some RR to redeem at Harris Teeter during the upcoming super doubles. Here's a quick store-by-store breakdown of the week's highlights...

Rite Aid
You can get free Nivea Lip Balm, Crest with Scope, Gillette Fusion Power Razor, Dentyne Gum (if you have some B1G1 blinkies and your RA accepts B1G1 q's on B1G1 sale items), Profoot Symposium Pain Relieving Gel, Oral B Advantage and Renpure Shampoo. The Renpure, Oral B and Profoot are all small moneymakers if you have the coupons necessary to make it work. You can find out all the details by clicking here for Southern Savers' match-ups. I'll also be trying to use a soon to expire B1G1 IP for Sobe Lifewater to get 2 for free.

CVS
Unfortunately, I am forced to stop at CVS this week to roll soon to expire ECBs. There are a couple of freebies to be had - namely, the Vaseline Sheer Infusion Body Lotion and Fruitopia or Viologie shampoo/conditioner. You can also get $10 ECB when you buy $25 worth of Proctor & Gamble products. The best way to make this deal work for the least amount of money is by buying Tide Stain Release or Bounce Dryer Bar with larger value coupons. You can find out all the details by clicking here for Southern Savers' match-ups.

Walgreen's
Walgreen's has 10 available freebies this week thanks to the Register Rewards program and coupons! Freebies include Vaseline Sheer Infusion Body Lotion, Emergen-C Booster, Oral B Advantage 1-2-3 Toothbrush, Chapstick Fresh Effects, Robitussin DM to Go, Dentek Floss, Halls Refresh Sugar Free lozenges, Trident gum, Herbal Essences and Gillette Fusions Razors. You can find out all the details by clicking here for Southern Savers' match-ups.

Happy shopping all!

Friday Finals - 9/26

Thanks to HT's triples promotions & Rite Aid's Huggies deal, this week was a PHENOMENAL week for saving in our household! All told, I wound up paying $35.67 out of pocket for $476.63 worth of groceries and household items...and I'll be getting $27.99 out of that back in Rite Aid Single Check Rebates and a Kellogg's Special K jeans rebate promotion. When you subtract the rebates I'm anticipating from the total out of pocket, it's as if we've saved a jaw-dropping 98%!

Here is a store-by-store breakdown:

Harris Teeter
Total before sales and coupons: $383.78
Total spent: $13.24
Total saved: $366.05 or 95%

Oh, triple coupon weeks...how do I love thee? Let me count the 366 ways! I need to get pics up of our growing stockpile because it is truly amazing. We're all set for soups and frozen veggies for the winter thanks to this triples go-round. I am awestruck at how much we got for so little- the GM & GG deals were the icing on the cake this week at HT.

Kroger
Total before sales and coupons: $19.57
Total spent: $13.24
Total saved: $6.33 or 32%

Kroger is our go to store for cheap cottage cheese and produce specials. Since winetags have been mysteriously elusive for the past few weeks (oh how I miss them!), I was stuck paying full price on most items bought at Kroger- still less money than I would have paid elsewhere for same stuff, so I'm happy.

Lowe's Foods
Total before sales and coupons: $15.76
Total spent: $1.11
Total saved: $14.65 or 95%

One of the few Lowe's stops I make are for rock bottom deals such as the Special K one going on this week. I bought 2 boxes of Special K cereal and three boxes of bars for $1.11 and promptly mailed out the jeans vouchers on each to earn a $10 jeans rebate. I've heard the rebate check is good for anything though! Can you say moneymaker? Love it!

Rite Aid
Total before sales and coupons: $52.57
Total spent: $20.57 (zero out of pocket thanks to a gift card)
Saved: $32 or 60%

Took advantage of Huggies diapers & wipes SCR deal, as well as the Proantinox moneymaker. Should get my September rebate check in the mail in the next couple of weeks. These are processed quickly. I love the SCR program!

Target
Total before sales and coupons: $3.56
Total spent: $3.56
Saved $0

Our Z bar coupons we had on hand expired and hubby needed them so I paid full price. Shame on me, I know. Anyone have any Clif coupons they're willing to spare or trade??

Whole Foods
Total before sales and coupons: $1.39
Total spent: 3 cents (sales tax)
Total saved: $1.39 or 100%

I rarely make stops to Whole Foods due to their regular high prices but did so this week thanks to a free Yo Baby meal coupon and the promise of an October coupon flier featuring a free gallon of milk and free carving pumpkin coupon good for separate weeks (thanks go to Jenny @ SouthernSavers for the fabulous tip!). You'll need to buy something to get this coupon flier...at least at the Cary location. They don't have these up front to pick up. A cashier will put one in your bag after ringing up your order.

All in all, this was a blockbuster week for us. How did you fare?

Yummy! Free ice cream!

Cold Stone Creamery will be hosting an "ice cream social"to benefit the Make-A-Wish foundation tomorrow night from 5-8 p.m. Make a donation (any donation!) during this time and receive a free 3 oz. Jack's Creation Sundae. This sounds yummy! It's made with sweet cream ice cream, brownies, caramel and rainbow sprinkles.

We're lucky enough to have a Cold Stone just a short drive away. I'm doing a happy dance just thinking about this!

Special K Moneymaker @ Lowe's Foods

Since I was out and about to donate kid's clothes to Goodwill, I decided to make a quick stop to Lowe's and see if I could make a good moneymaker out of the Special K deal that's going on right now. And I did! Using three .75/1 tearpad q's I had on hand for Special K bars and two $1/1 internet q's for Special K Cereal, I wound up paying $1.11 for 3 boxes of bars and 2 boxes of cereal. I made sure to pick out boxes which had the jeans tokens on- after mailing all 5 of these in for Kellogg's jean rebate, I'll be getting a $10 check turning this deal into a $8.89 moneymaker!

I love the cereal so this was already a sweet deal even without the rebate. Here's links to printables that might make this a good moneymaker for you too!

$1/1 Cereal coupon - http://bricks.coupons.com/bstart.asp?o=58292&c=SK&p=xKeWZihO

You can find .75/1 Special K cereal bar coupons on www.coupons.com. These were still available as of this blog entry.

The rebate form can be found inside boxes marked with the special jean token that you'll need to send in for the rebate.

Grocery Deals - week of 9/23

Phew! I am wiped out from HT's Triples. Not sure how much shopping I'll get out to do this coming week as we're pretty well stocked on just about everything...excepting Lean Ground beef which hasn't been on sale for what seems like forever! Having said that, if I do venture out it will likely be due to one of the following deals...

Food Lion

Not much going on at FL this week. There is a really great deal on Smart Balance butter blends sticks. They're B1G1 and paired up with the $1.50 coupon from 9/13's Red Plum, you can get these for 14 cents each. For all the details on FL's deals this week, click here for SouthernSaver's match-ups.

Harris Teeter

Great E-Vic special this week on 5 lb. bags of White Potatoes (limit 1 per customer)- pair this up with their B1G1 London Broil or Top Round Roast and you've got the makings of a great Crock Pot dinner. Sorrento String Cheeses are also B1G1 and with the $1.00/1 insert coupon or peelies, you can get these for $1.50 a pack (note: I don't see these listed on SouthernSavers, but they were on my weekly specials email from HT). For all the details on HT's deals this week, click here for SouthernSaver's match-ups.

The big news from HT this week is that they'll be hosting a Super Doubles week this coming week!! So get those $1 and $1.50 coupons ready...I already know of a great deal involving Catalinas on McCormick spices so keep your $1 q's handy!

Kroger

Mega Event continues through this week. This would be a good time and place to buy items for the Nabisco Rebate if you have the form and are looking to make the most of it! Also, a great week to buy some cheap Lysol cleaners if you need to stock up as they are on sale for 1/2 off. Combine sale prices with .50/1 coupons from 8/23 and 9/13's SmartSource inserts and you can get toilet bowl cleaner for 29 cents and household cleaner for 59 cents each. Gala apples are also on sale for 99 cents/lb. Get all the details on Kroger's sale by clicking here for Southern Savers match-ups.

Lowe's Foods

Lowe's is running a Special K deal this week where you'll get $5 off at register when you buy 5 Special K products. Combine this with any coupons you have on Special K and a $10 jeans rebate offer and you have the makings of a potential moneymaker. Gala apples are also on sale at Lowe's for 99 cents/lb. Milk is $1.99/gallon and I think you can get some free Sun Crystals Sweetener after sale price and coupon. Lowe's is also running a McCormick Catalina deal, but you may be better off holding onto these for HT's upcoming Super Doubles. For all the deals on Lowe's Foods weekly specials, click here for HCW's list.

Happy Shopping everyone!

Bragging Rights

Okay, I'm not one to brag, but I've done so well today I couldn't resist sharing. Thanks to stocked up $3 GM Cats, the balance remaining on a Rite Aid gift card and coupons, I wound up spending just under $2 out of pocket for the following at Rite Aid and Harris Teeter:

2 Jumbo Packs of Huggies Pure & Natural diapers
12 cans of Campbell's Chunky Soup (6 regular, 6 healthy request kind)
1 pack of Pepperidge Farm sandwich buns
6 boxes of Green Giant frozen veggies
1 small bottle of Trop50 oj
2 bottles of Shamrock Farms Rocket Refuel chocolate milk
1 Breyers Yo-Crunch multi-pack
1 large top round sirloin steak (nearly 1 1/2 lbs)

I am now qualified for the $10 Huggies rebate (purchased another pack yesterday) and am very close to earning my $20 additional Rite Aid gift check for the Gift of Savings promotion and I have yet another $3 GM CAT to use for another shopping trip at HT.

Can I get a virtual high five from someone?

Drugstore Deals - week of 9/20

Snoozer of a week at the drugstores (in my humble opinion) with the notable exception of Rite Aid. If you're in the market for diapers (or know anyone who is!), this is a great week to visit Rite Aid. Check out all the details & scenarios on Southern Savers by clicking here- I'll be there taking advantage of the Huggies deals. Gotta love free diapers!

Walgreen's has 2 moneymaker deals this week on Roots of Nature hair care products and Thermacare heat wrap single packs. You can also get some cheap Tylenol Adult Cold/Sinus medicine (just in time for flu season). Click here for all the details.

There's not much exciting at CVS. Thankfully, I don't have any ECBs set to expire this week so I'm holding off until the next to make a CVS stop. There is one potential moneymaker with Aquafresh Iso Actives if you have the two coupons necessary to make it work. Click here for all the details from SouthernSavers.

Friday Finals 9/18

It's a late edition of Friday Finals! Here's the week's spending & saving round-up...

Harris Teeter

Spent $23.52
Saved $313.28

Lots of great triples finds! Greatest deals involved the General Mills, Old El Paso and Green Giant promos. We are well stocked on frozen veggies and will continue to beef up supply over the next several days. Other good finds: you can get two Propels for free if you have the .50/1 coupons as they're B1G1 at $1.39. You can also get two containers of Hillshire Farms deli meat for $1 with .55/1 coupons - they're running a special where you'll get $3 off the pair when you buy 2.

Lowe's Foods

Spent $6.15
Saved $16.78

Made one quick trip for the B2G3 free Old Orchard juice and B1G1 Thomas' bagels. I had actually hoped to spend less but unfortunately my .50/1 hangtag coupons did not double for the juice. Still a great bargain though!

Rite Aid

Spent $0 thanks to use of a gift card
Saved $15.00 in coupons

Picked up 10 Johnson & Johnson baby washes. I'll get a $15 Single Check rebate and have $29.90 spent towards earning a Gift of Savings gift card.

Walgreen's

Spent $0 thanks to use of a gift card
Saved $15.97 in coupons

Picked up 18 copies of last Sunday's paper, a Murine ear drop medicine and a couple of True North nut snacks (later used Register Rewards earned on these purchase at Harris Teeter).

Target

Spent $19.34
Saved $49.33

Stocked up on more Healthy Choice meals (4 cents each after coupon!), bagels, puffs, Fiber One bars and free string cheeses (thanks to a Target printable).

Kroger

Spent $50.84
Saved $61.92

Bought even more Healthy Choice meals (20 cents after coupon), 10 capri suns and assorted groceries, fruit & veggies. Will also use capri sun purchase towards a $20 Nabisco rebate.

Grand Totals:

Spent a total of $99.89 (Yay! Under $100!)
Saved a total of $472.28 in sale prices & coupons
Saved an additional $25.25 by using gift cards

Total savings: 83%

Weekly Grocery Deals

I've been too wrapped up in keeping a very close eye on my walking toddler...and taking advantage of Harris Teeter Triples so I'm quite late for a weekly grocery deals post but here it is...

Not too terribly much going on at other local grocers. Food Lion has some really good deals on meat right now. For all the details, click here.

Lowe's has cheap bacon eggs and some decent Buy 2, get 3 Free deals. For an hcw round-up, click here.

Kroger has the mega deal going on through Saturday. I'm going to make a stop to take advantage of the Juicy Juice deal with some soon-to-expire coupons I traded for on Hot Coupon World. For all the details on this mega event, click here.

And, as posted earlier this week, HT is the queen bee for my shopping this week thanks to some amazing Triples deals. Keep scrolling down on the blog for my big Harris Teeter entry.

I stopped by this morning and did quite well- though I'm scratching my head a bit over it as something must have caused overage somewhere. I expected to be two to three dollars out of pocket and wound up paying less than a buck. Here's what I got:

1 Del Monte can of Apricot Halves (FREE after home mailer coupon)
1 Del Monte can of Mixed Fruit (FREE after home mailer coupon)
1 Powerade 32 oz (FREE thanks to EVic special)
4 Campbell's Chunky soups (.14 each after peelie coupon)
3 boxes of Barilla Mini Penne (FREE after insert coupon)
5 boxes of Green Giant frozen veggies (.45 for all after insert & IPs)
3 bottles of Shamrock milk rocket refuel (FREE after insert coupons)
3 Blue Bunny personals ice cream (FREE after home mailer coupon)
1 bunch of bananas

Total spent: 66 cents
Total saved: $37.24 and received a $3 catalina off my next order

I loooove this Green Giant deal!

Rocking the Triples

Thanks to 2 very kind folks, I had three VIC cards to kickstart triples this morning. They let me borrow theirs for the day and I put all to very good use thanks to the General Mills promo going on right now (buy 15 selected items, get $5 off your order), the Green Giant deal (buy 5, get a $3.00 coupon for your next shopping order) and the Old El Paso deal (buy 3, get a $1 off your next beef or chicken purchase). Here's the rundown (with pics for those who enjoy visuals)...

Trip 1 (my card):




3 rolls of Viva paper towels
3 Betty Crocker Warm Delights
2 boxes of Chex Mix Bars
1 box of Fiber One toaster pastries
1 box of Kashi Honey Sunshine Cereal
4 packets of Old El Paso reduced sodium taco seasoning
1 can of Campbell's Chunky Soup
3 boxes of Barilla Piccolini mini Penne
5 boxes of Green Giant Steamfresh veggies
1 six pack of Jello Dulce De Leche pudding (this stuff is HEAVENLY!)
1 Lunchable ham & cheese

Total spent: 54 cents
VIC & coupon savings: $54.57
Also received a $3 OYNO coupon - did not get my $1 Old El Paso Catalina. I will call store to see how to handle this...if you have any suggestions based on your own personal experience please feel free to share in the comments section!

Trip 2 (friend's card):

2 boxes of Chex Mix bars
3 boxes of Betty Crocker fruit snacks
4 packets of Old El Paso reduced sodium taco seasoning
1 box of Uncle Ben's wild rice
3 boxes of Barilla Piccolini mini Penne
1 Marie Callendar's frozen meal
5 boxes of Green Giant steamfresh veggies
1 multipack of Yoplait Delights
2 multipacks of Gum Kids' crayola toothbrushes
3 bottles of Shamrock Farms no sugar added chocolate milk
1 turkey & american Lunchable

Total spent: $2.86
VIC & coupon savings: 52.46
Also received $3.00 OYNO coupon and $1 off your next beef or chicken purchase coupon

Trip 3 (family member's card):

1 box of Wanchai Ferry kung pao chicken dinner kit

1 box of Betty Crocker fruit snacks

3 Betty Crocker warm delights

2 bottles of Wishbone dressing

4 packets of Old El Paso reduced sodium taco seasoning

3 cans of Campbell's chunky soup

3 boxes of Barilla Piccolini mini penne

2 plus pounds of red seedless grapes

1 box of Kashi frozen turkey fiesta sandwiches

1 Marie Callendar's frozen meal

5 boxes of Green Giant steamfresh veggies

1 small bottle of Tropicana orange juice

1 multipack of Yoplait Delights

1 bottle of Shamrock Farms No Sugar Added Chocolate Milk

Spent: $1.07

VIC & Coupon Savings: $65.18

Received a $3.00 off your next order coupon and $1 off your next beef & chicken purchase. Will also use receipt to file for a $2 rebate from Wishbone dressing!

All in all, it was a great day to shop at Harris Teeter! I spent $4.47, saved $172.27, earned $11 in Catalinas and will earn another $2 in mail-in-rebates.

Hot new Luvs coupon...

From the kind folks at HCW:

Luvs Diapers will have a link on their site starting at 12am EST on Tuesday, 9/15 to sign up for a free $5 off coupon for Luvs diapers. These will likely go FAST so be sure to get yours as soon as you can! The coupon will be fulfilled to those who sign up via postal mail.

Per the ladies at HCW, it's part of Luvs campaign about "Taking a Stand" and in the case with the coupon, it's taking a stand against high prices at the store. So if you use diapers, know someone who does, or just need a really great coupon to swap, get in on this tomorrow and get signed up fast at Luvs.com.

Harris Teeter Triples Deals!

Triples are coming on Wednesday and boy oh boy there are some AMAZING deals to be had! Jenny at Southern Savers has posted two separate lists- for the list of the weekly ad deals, click here; for the list of non-sale items that turn out to be freebies/near freebies thanks to triples, click here.

Southern Savers also has a handy new tool on the site where you can click on the items you'll be purchasing and create a shopping list from there. It's quite nifty!

I'll likely be spending a good chunk of tomorrow clipping and getting things ready. I already have several baseball card sheets filled with goodies. I lucked into some .75/1 Campbell's Chunky soup coupons at Kroger that I'll use during triples to get cans of Chunky Soup for a dime. Score!

Drugstore Deals - Week of 9/13

I am pooped from an 8 mile run and a Railhawks game with the family so excuse me for the brevity.

Not too much to be said for this week's drugstore deals- Walgreens is your best bet of the three IMHO- there are 3 freebies/potential moneymakers after Register Rewards.

Here's the deal-y-o on Walgreens:

$6 RR wyb Murine Ear Drop Kit at $6 Free after RR

$3 RR wyb True North Nut Crisps or Clusters 4.5-5.5oz at $3 Free after RR (moneymaker if you have the following coupons!):
-$1 off True North 100% Natural Nut Snack, Any, SS 2/08
-$1.50 off any bag of TrueNorth “Making Triathlon Cool Again”booklet at Publix-$1 off True North Brand Nut Snacks, printable

$5 RR wyb (2) Triaminic Allergy, Sinus or Cold Relief $5 ea
-$1.50 off Triaminic Thin Strips, printable (IE) or printable (FF) or here
-$2 off Triaminic (store coupon) “Healthy Savings” booklet (look for it inside the store)

I'll be making an early morning trip tomorrow to take advantage of these as well as pick up multiple copies of this Sunday's jam packed newspaper (5 inserts in all!)

CVS has free Dyna Pep Energy Micro Shot 2 packs after ECB (limit 2). You'll spend $4.99 on each and get that back on ECBs. Nothing else really stands out to me.

No big news for Rite Aid this week- the diaper deal I spoke of last week is actually for the week of the 20th so hold on to your Rite Aid video values and manufacturer coupons until then.

For all the details, check out http://www.southernsavers.com/ and click on the tabs for each drugstore.

Friday Finals!

In line with Southern Saver's Friday Finals weekly edition, I'm going to be putting up my totals for the week (running Saturday through Friday). Here's the grand total for this past week:

Total Value of Items Purchased: $541.54
Total Amount Spent: $149.63
Total Amount Saved: $391.91

Percentage Saved: 72%

I'd like to strive for spending less than $100 per week (perhaps a lofty goal for a family of 6), but since Coke Zero was on sale & I had coupons we wound up stocking up on it which bumped our total spent up.

Here's a store by store breakdown:

Target:

Spent $5.88
Saved $3.89
Gotta have our EAS shakes!

Walgreens:
Spent $5.20
Saved $47.16
Took advantage of Scrubbing Bubbles shower kit, Garnier & Glade Register Rewards deal and used balance remaining on a gift card.

Rite Aid:
Spent $0 thanks to a gift card!
Saved $13 in coupons and will get another $13.49 back in SCRs.
Bought some shoe inserts for Jon and Pampers for the bambino.

CVS:

Spent $10.58
Saved $61.33
Lots of Schick razors and Scope Outlasts- would have spent less if my grand plans had worked out the way I intended...either my math stinked and/or the coupons didn't work out the way I planned. Grr.

Harris Teeter:
Spent $54.79
Saved $131.68
Coke Zero-palooza! We have over 30 twelve packs on hand now. Took advantage of Walgreens Register Rewards to bring totals down during Coke purchases. Also bought produce and milk throughout the week.

Kroger:
Spent $59.89
Saved $36.37
Bought some super cheap Healthy Choice meals thanks to $2 printables, various produce items, cottage cheese and about 13 lbs or so of boneless skinless chicken breast.

Lowes Foods:
Spent $13.29
Saved $98.48
Used remaining Jello coupons before expiration and stocked up on Softsoap body wash & Lawry's marinades.

Mambo Sprouts coupon booklets are out!

September Back to School Savings Booklets are out! What this means is if you've already registered on their site, you should be getting one in the mail or you can find them at nearby retailers. Booklets should include more than $25* in savings (*coupon offers vary depending on the region) with a variety of natural and organic coupons from manufacturers such as Seventh Generation™, Clif Kid™, Pirate's Booty®, RiceSelect™ , Lundberg®, Ian's® and many more!

Jon and I love the Clif Kid Z Bars. His fave is Chocolate Chip while I prefer Peanut Butter.

Click here for a sneak preview of the new booklet! If you haven't received your copy in the mail, please locate a store near you to pick one up or visit their FAQs page.

And the winner of the changing pad giveaway is...

(drumroll please) Lucky #7- lazy1608!

Please email me your name, mailing address, email and phone number as soon as you can and your prize will be shipped to you from CSNBaby. You can email me at petrinak72@yahoo.com.

Thanks everyone who entered!!

Triples coming up next week!

I heard through the grapevine that Harris Teeter will again be offering up a triple coupon event this coming week (9/16) so get your 50 & 75 cent coupons ready...and if you're lucky enough to have them, your 85 cent Viva coupons too!

There may also be up to FIVE inserts in this coming Sunday's paper. If you haven't already started buying multiple copies, this week would be the time to start. Click here for SouthernSaver's sneak peek at the contents. There should be lots of goodies for triples as well as the next super doubles event.

Hopefully someone will get their hands on the ad ahead of time!

Grocery Deals - week of 9/09

No huge standouts this week with the exception of some very good produce deals @ Harris Teeter.

Here's a store by store Triangle lineup:

Food Lion

Food Lion is running a special where you'll earn a $20 NFLShop.com gift certificate when you buy $25 worth of Proctor & Gamble products. Your best bet is to stick with sale items on their line-up- these are the Bounty Basic paper towels, Charmin, Dawn and Prilosec.

Red grapes are on sale for 99 cents/lb. And you can also get Edy's ice cream for a cool $1.69 when you use the $1 off coupon from 8/23 Red Plum insert.

You can read all SouthernSaver's details and match-ups here.

Kroger

Same as last week with notable addition of a hot $2/1 printable Healthy Choice frozen meal coupon you can get at http://www.healthychoice.com/. With this coupon and sale price, you'll be paying 20 cents for a decent lunch. Jon loves these for work and I am currently trying to trade up a storm for these on HCW...so if you're able to print these out and don't plan on using these, please please please send me an email at petrinak72@yahoo.com. Let's make a trade!

I also noticed that Gala apples are on sale for 99 cents/lb. Sweet deal for some crisp yummy apples!

Click here for all SouthernSaver match-ups.

Lowe's Foods

No standouts. But a poster on HCW did note TWO great finds for coupon booklets at her NC Lowe's- a Tailgate Like a Pro booklet and an SC Johnson booklet. Be on the lookout for these as they have some GREAT coupons (especially for super doubles and triples!!).

For the HCW match-up thread, click here.

Harris Teeter

No super doubles or triples this week, but some great whole foods deals- most impressively, a gallon of milk for $1.97!

Broccoli crowns are on sale for 1.79/lb, bell peppers are $1.50/each and raspberry and blueberry boxes are 4 for $6.

E-Vic of the week is a 99 cent box of HT cereal. You can also get Martha White muffin mixes (these are really scrumptious and easy to make) for only 4 cents a box when you use the .55/2 coupon in 8/09 RedPlum insert. Spray N Wash and Glass Plus will both be free after coupons and UPromise savings.

You can find all SouthernSaver's match-ups here.

Free Sandwich at Chick-Fil-A

Today only, go into any Chick-Fil-A sporting your favorite team gear (whether it be NFL, NHL or your kid's soccer team!) and get a free Chick-Fil-A sandwich. Stella approved of this deal - see the thumbs up! I think she really liked her sandwich.

Be prepared for a long line but they'll get you out fairly quickly. Happy Labor Day all!

Free Softsoap Body Wash at Lowe's Foods!

Just wanted to pass a quick freebie to you Lowe's Shoppers- all Softsoap body washes are currently on sale for 2/$3 (even the new Serum kinds!). Pair the sale price up with the .75/1 coupon that appeared in last Sunday's SmartSource and it's free thanks to coupon doubling!

Drugstore Deals - Week of 9/05

This is not a particularly noteworthy week for drugstore freebies & moneymakers but there are a few things I'll be taking advantage of... here's the scoop drugstore by drugstore!

Rite Aid

I'll be skipping out on a Rite Aid trip this week as there is nothing, in my humble opinion, worth stopping by for- but I'll definitely be there next week when they have a Huggies sale & Single Check Rebate offer. I'll be picking up 3 Huggies Pure & Natural Packs for $13 out of pocket and then filing for a $10 SCR- making each pack a mind-blowing $1 each. You can read all the details about this deal & others from this coming week here at southernsavers.

CVS

I'll only be doing one deal at CVS this coming week- and that is for FREE multi-packs of Schick razors after ECBs and a $3/1 coupon from 8/16's SmartSource insert. Click here for summaries of all the other deals available at CVS this coming week.

Walgreen's

There are a couple of really good deals to be had at Walgreen's- namely, a FREE Scrubbing Bubbles Shower Cleaner kit (after Register Rewards and a $7 printable), yet more free Glade candles (these will make great teacher's gifts!) after Register Rewards and $2 printables and another free Glade Sense & Spray to add to our growing collection after Register Rewards and the $4/1 insert coupon. If you have $2/1 Starbucks ice cream coupons on hand, you can also get yourself some free Starbucks ice cream! You can read all the details on these and other deals @ Walgreen's this week here.

One thing I've been delighted to recently discover is that you can use your Walgreen's Register Rewards at Harris Teeter!

That's about it for drugstore deals this week! Hope y'all find my lists helpful. Many thanks & kudos go out to Jenny @ Southern Savers for spotting and sharing these deals.

Organizing Your Coupons

There are probably nearly just as many ways to organize coupons as there are hardcore coupon shoppers out there. The key is to experiment a bit until you find a way that works best for you and your household! After a year of coupon shopping, I've finally come up with a system that works well for me. I can't guarantee that it will work for you, but I will share in the hopes that it might help some of you who are just starting out or those who've been doing it a while and haven't yet felt like they found a good working system. Here's a little video I made illustrating my current system:

I highly recommend the use of a zippered binder for you to carry coupons to store. Some folks will use giant boxes (no I'm not kidding!) and cart these around while shopping - and this will allow for some really awesome deals when you spot stuff that's unadvertised or clearance deals but for me, personally, that is too much of a chore. I'd rather have stuff planned out ahead of time and have my coupons ready for use then lugging an oversized box around and then hunting around in it for minutes on end when shopping. Shopping with kids in tow is difficult enough as it is...especially when one is strapped to your chest while you're shopping.

My carry to store binder has a section where I can pop in receipts and copies of submitted rebate forms/receipts, a zippered section on the interior where I can put coupons that won't fit into the standard baseball card sized insert, a pair of scissors and a handheld calculator (because like the old Talking Barbie of my youth, I suck at math!). In the front of the 3 hole punched section, I have pockets for rebates which I have not yet qualified for so I can pop the receipts in when I purchase qualifying items, 3 pages of baseball card inserts for good winetags and FREE coupons that I can use wherever and then sections for each store I shop at (CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Harris Teeter, Lowe's Foods, Kroger, Food Lion, Target and Misc). My CVS section also includes all 3 of my CVS ExtraCare cards and their corresponding coupons/ECBs.

At home, I have a file system for inserts and All You Magazine coupons. These are placed in file folders labelled with date of insert/magazine- inserts are also filed by type of insert (RedPlum, Smart Source or Proctor & Gamble). When Sundays roll around, I'll tear apart each of my inserts (I typically have 10-12 on hand) and separate them based on pages so that each like page will be filed with each like page. This makes it easier to clip many of the same when needed for shopping or trades.

I used to clip every single coupon from every single insert and then file them in an oversized baseball card collector book by category (ie bread, personal hygiene, snacks etc). This just got to be too much work. You'll learn as you go that there are many coupons in the inserts that you'll never use or need. Why bother clipping if you're not going to actually use these? I switched to filing the entire insert pages unclipped and it's saved me a lot of time and hassle.

Each day, I typically get A LOT of non-insert items from trades, coupon trains (these are fun things you can join as a trader on http://www.hotcouponworld.com/) writing manufacturers for coupons or collecting blinkies/peelies/tearpads from stores. I have a separate expandable file for these that are separated alphabetically by brand name. This makes it easy to just pop them into after I receive these and also easy to recover when trading or getting ready to shop.

You can do a search on the internet for methods of organization and find hundreds of ways to do so. You'll also find that you'll usually want to tweak a method once you adopt one. Don't throw your hands up in frustration if something's not working for you- change systems or tweak the one that you have until you find something that works well for you!

Handy Dandy CVS ECBs

It looks like a couple of consecutive blah weeks at CVS so I decided to burn through some of the nearly $80 worth of ECBs I've accumulated on various household needs. I ended up getting the following stuff for just over $5 out of pocket:

Jumbo pack of CVS brand toilet paper (24 rolls)
2- 100 ct. bottles of prenatal vitamins (no, I'm not preggers again- just still nursing!)
2- 30 ct packs of Probiotic Acidopholus tabs
1- toddler toothbrush & toothpaste
2 marble composition notebooks

I got more bang for the buck by separating purchase into 3 transactions and using one $5/$25 q and two $2/$10 vitamin autofill coupons. And I earned another $2 ECB by using a raincheck for the marble composition notebooks.

Grocery Deals - week of 9/02

I meant to post this yesterday and make this a weekly Wednesday feature, but Stella's been a bit of a fuss-budget as of late. My apologies! Lots of Labor Day themed specials on meat, paper plates & plastic cups can be found at practically every store. Here are my picks for this week's best deals at Triangle area grocery stores.

Food Lion

Sadly, FL has discontinued their Guiding Stars FLIP (a store specific internet printable) that would allow you to get free or nearly free produce, eggs and other healthy stuff. This was a $1.00 coupon that could be used on any "healthy" item in the store- paired with specials and carefully measured produce, you could get some really wonderful deals on whole foods. I'm hoping they'll bring it back.

I'm not a big FL shopper since they don't double q's but I do stop by on occasion for really good deals.

This week, they'll have free or nearly free Mt. Olive Sweet Relish if you have 50 cent coupons handy from 7/19 or 8/16 insert. If you haven't exhausted your supply of Glade Fragrance collection coupons you can get free or cheap candles since they're on sale B1G1. With the $3 printable or the $3 All You coupon, you can get these for free. If you have $2 insert coupons, you'll pay $1 for each.

Harris Teeter

There's a rumor swirling on HCW right now that HT will alternate between super doubles and triples every other week until the end of year. I don't know about you, but I find this prospect both exciting and exhausting. Guess we'll find out soon. In the interim, they have some good freebies and cheapies this week with their typical doubling of q's.

My personal faves? Sorrento string cheese can be bought for a mere 33 cents each pack when you use the $1 coupon from 8/23 Smart Source. Coke 12 packs are also on sale for a rock bottom 4/$10 ($2.50 each). There's a limit of 8. I've traded for a bunch of $1/2 q's so I'll be stocking up on our beloved Coke Zero for $2 each 12 pack.

You can also get Reynolds Recycled 35 ft aluminum foil for 14 cents with the 75 cent coupon found in 8/16 Smart Source insert.

Both Smithfield Bacon and French's worcestershire sauce will be free with printables (click on each item to find and print!).

Kroger

No big deals going on at Kroger this week- will buy a couple more packs of the Kroger Comforts diapers for our little munchkin but nothing else really stood out for me this week.

Lowe's

Lowe's has an instasave special (sign up on their website) where you can get a 4 lb. bag of sugar for 99 cents (limit 2).

Other standouts this week include Lawry's marinades for 54 cents with 50 cent insert coupon, Kellogg's cereals (selected kids flavors) for 65 cents a box with $2/2 insert coupon, A1 Marinade for FREE with $2/1 insert coupon.

Please feel free to post comments if you spot other good deals at any of these stores, Super Walmart or Super Target!

New Printables Out Today!

Both http://www.coupons.com/ and http://www.smartsource.com/ have been restocked! Check out each - certain coupons will appear on both sites. Be sure to print out the 2 copies you're allowed for the ones you want.

The Green Giant .50/1 will likely go fast (if they're even still there!) so be sure to get your 4 copies of these (2 from coupons and 2 from smartsource).